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Laaga Chunari Mein Daag: Brought to you by
Just what is the point of it all.
When veteran ad film and music video director Pradeep Sarkar made his foray into Bollywood with ‘Parineeta’ the words that found itself being repeated in every review were ‘auspicious debut’ and there was no doubt about it. But sophomore slump afflicts Sarkar in ‘Laaga Chunari Main Daag’ and most inauspiciously. It was a film that should never have been made. And even when it has been made, throughout the span of the narrative keeps negating itself as if leading into a black hole governed by the principles of logic that function in a Balaji Teleserial.
The start is symptomatic of what is to follow but hardly an indication of the travesty. Sarkar opens with austere frames of Benares and before one can say ‘Bubbly’, slips on a banana peel into a bubblier-than-bubbly, bouncier-than-bouncy, unbearably psuedo-sacchrine song the camera rushing through lil lanes. Howzzat!
The first half has its moment. Sarkar etches his characters well and there is a drive through the narative, however cliched this particular story of lost innocence may be. He effectively potrays the deterioration of aristocratic Benares and draws out excellent performances from his actors. Sarkar seems to aspiring for the literary- he name drops the great Hindi authors, the dialogue aspires for poetry and even if it gets over-laden with metaphors it keeps away from vulgar Bhandarkarisms in the name of reality. The title song which even though plays like a wedged-in Shubha Mudgal video is an interesting technique for taking the story ahead with a way around what would have inevitably been cliched repetititive scenes.
Then comes the first diagnosed case of minor foot-in-mouth. After a badly acted, soul-less scene in which Sarkar has pretentions of critiquing Globalisation, he launches without skipping a beat, into a full fledged ‘Switzerland Tourism’ ad film. One may shrug it off but post interval comes the sequence telescoped in the same vien that one cannot ignore and has no choice but to cringe and squirm till it takes a half hour to come to an end.
It is clear Sarkar has lofty ambitions for his film. From the title addendum (Journey of A Woman) to the way his charcters are drawn it’s made clear that what the movie is gunning for is to try to define the modern Indian Women. And in the name of such great sentiments, maybe it’s the adman in Sarkar or the commercial bottomlines at Yashraj, the movie decides to peddle a brand of bathroom soap. There is a helluva lot of difference between a product placement and an ad film and it’s a shame that the makers don’t realize it. So you what you get in the end is a two and half hour soap sales pitch for which you fork your hard earned cash at the multiplex. Hell, a hundred exploitative B graders about small town girls being forced into the flesh trade have much more a sense of integrity and dignity about themselves.
And as for the modern Indian women- where are the morchas which raged against Fire, Bandit Queen, Susanna and so many others in the name of defending the honor of the sisterhood of the modern Indian Women.
Hopefully not buying a bar of soap.
Selling out was never so blatant. Even for a commercial Bollywood film.
For a semblance of dignity scroll below:-
(images courtesy:- www.kamat.com, www.soumyadipc.blogspot.com)
18 Responses to “Laaga Chunari Mein Daag: Brought to you by”
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Yeah i agree with u…LCMD was a huge disappointment…it appeared as an ambitious project…but really dont understand why was dis film made? why were PS/YRF so charged up abt this film?
Chak de was a fantabulous film but this one was a big let down i wish better things for ‘aaja nachle’
LCMD’s story was outdated…regressive…too predictable…wont give high marks to the writer - rekha nigam …lot of scenes were concieved and shot like ekta kapoor’s soaps…which helped in making this woman’s journey SUPER BORING!!
He had a good starcast and such a huge budget but it was a sheer wastage…wish he cud have chosen a better subject.
Have heard LCMD’s opening in india is worse than neal n nikki…Subhash K Jha Chopra is trying his best to save this film by writing +ve stuff abt the film…he will do the same for SLB’Saawariya too…he must be busy writing Saawariya’s without watching the film super +ve review…ha ha
wishing luck to PS’s next project …!!
Awsome ensemble of old print ads…quite refreshing!
Liked what you have written.
But, just one thing:
(images courtesy:- http://www.kamat.com, http://www.soumyadipc.blogspot.com)
Than why put a line advertising PFC at the bottom of each Images. If the previous uploaders have kept it clean. So should you. Also, give them credit by providing a link to their site(that would also let them know that you are using their work)
I think form the start PFC has been very clear about copyright issues…one of the reasons why we don’t see many reviews with a lot of images. PFC even raised hell with newspapers over copyright issue and blogger rights.
Please continue to keep it clean.
Anurag keeps talking highly about Jaideep Sahni but I feel he has been too much formulaic. Nothing new in his work. If you look at almost all his work, there is one formula that he follows religiously, except Jungle which I don’t remember the story
U=W x E
Well, it’s a simple formula, Underdog is the Winner in the End! That’s it!! He adds heavy doses of Masala and that’s it. Bhailog, jab kisi ki chal padthi hain na, woh kuch bhi likhe ya kare…chalti rahegi…That’s called fate…
Company - Even though it was a Dawood-Rajan story, the essential point in the story was how a small time lad becomes one of Mumbai’s greatest don.
Bunty Aur Babli - Sabse chutiya picture hain toh yeh hi hain…ok ok…fultoo timepass tha but not my kind of cinema as I felt insulted as a viewer but understand that India is filled with Munna Tiwary and Family types who don’t want logic and just want to laugh.
Khosla Ka Ghosla - Again, U = W X E. Logic goes for a toss. The script has been conveniently rigged to get the desired results. I don’t consider such movies great stuff.
Chak De India - Let me copy and paste what I wrote about this movie in another comment: nd why do you keep harping about Chak De. There are dime and dozen such sports movies that come in Hollywood every week and they exactly copied the formula. What was different in it? Thoda sa religion ka angle dal diya and people started praising it as a great cinema! Stupid! There could be much more depth in the script. The coach could have made the players not just better players, but better human beings…but everything went over the surface. People got euphoric cos Indian team become world champions…Well, we desperately needed to see India as world champions in a movie atleast if not in real life.
Have you seen Glory Road produced by Jerry Bruckheimer? Compare it with Chak De.
Coming to Aaja Nachle, by looking at the Promos, it’s very clear that its a fight of a US returned girl to revive the drama theatre or a dance troupe or something like that where she used to enjoy plays as a kid and is now closed down. I guess its about how she manages to get it running inspite of opposition from the whole village and emerges the winner. I am sure in between the story, she has to chose either her career/love life in US or the drama theatre and she chooses the drama company etc etc!! HAHAHA!!
Anurag, you call this new age writing? What’s NEW?
You know how Jaideep Sahni would have wrote the story of Laaga Chunari Mein Daag? After Rani comes to Mumbai and becomes a hooker, even there she is taken for a ride and now she is fucked totally! No posh flats, no 5 star escorts but on the road fucked for free hooker! Now Rani comes together with other hookers and organizes a game plan. They start their own organization called Hooker Inc which becomes the top sex magazine/company like Playboy! Rani is now seen as the modern woman! She sells Indian Erotica to the world, gives lectures all around the world including the UN about Indian culture and erotica! Abhishek Bachchan is waddling his tongue to patao her, completely oblivious to her past!
:-?:((:o
Hey Siddharth,
Thanks for those,old ad prints
:)
dude machchar company is not just another underdog story..
its arguably the best underworld movie ever made..
rgv and jaideep took us into the organised world of crime…it was a remarkable example of excellent screenwriting and fantastic direction…..
agreed that KKG was an underdog movie …but wat made it different was the premise…n i dont think it was short of logic…..if u think so enlighten me…..
B&B was a collective failure of Jaideep Sahni and Shaad Ali….(though i must mention it too had its moments)….
and Chak De India
hmm..as the pfc review said ” mother of all cliches but works”
wat it work is again the writing and the direction..
u say the coach could have made them better human beings…..
i think there were fair enough examples of that..
1 komal passing off the ball to preeti and saying..” dikhade us launde ko..”
2 in the end when the team arrives at the airport the punjabi girl i guess kaur talks calmly and courteously to the cabbie ( a complete contrast to wat she was in the beginning….
3 bindiya naik…her entire track was about her transformation from an experienced brat to an experienced teamperson….
within its limitations it did a fair enough job
its a great movie any day by bollywood standards..
dude i think jaideep is extremely talented and definitely the one to watch out for…
yea i agree..tht laga chunri mein daag is a huge dissapointment….
the movie could have been made better….no doubt the performances of each and every actor is fab..but thts not the only thing tht matters..the moviesss toooo predictable…and theres nothing new in it…we know tht these things happen in our scty…
inshort i feel pradeep sarkar could have done something better for his film…..
Who got “sold off” in Mumbai in LCMD ? — Badki ( Rani’s Character ) or PS ? :P
Just a reminder of the pathetic state of our cinema.
The Marathi film on which LCMD is based ( Pradeep Sarkar apparantly got inspired from the Marathi Film ) - DOGHI - is a much better film than LCMD
LCMD was bad from starting itself, the first song which introduces all characters somehow had set the tone for the movie and one could feel that its going to be a bad one… the hema sequence was forced into the movie, was the career choice of rani stamped by hema?…
@Machchar
Completely agree with you about Chak De and Bunty aur Babli…
I hated B aur B. Coming to Chak De, I thought it was ok, but my friends were going ga ga over it. It was not a great movie, but better than watching LCMD or a Partner!!
@Machchar
Agree with you about B & B, and chak de. company, I believe, is his best work till date (of what I have seen).
Company is much better than what you make it up in your comment. It may be inspired from Dawood-Rajan’s story but the execution was deft. Macroscopic view of crime is well documented through the eyes of 3 protagonists. It could have been better but limited by mainly, I guess, RGV’s penchant for melodrama.
[...] movie has received mixed results, and is clearly not a success like Parineeta. Some people say the movie did not [...]
Vinayak: Thanks for taking up my cause. I wouldn’t have even known about this post had you not provided a hyperlink to my blog in your comment.
Soumyadip,
Glad to be of help.
I feel Jaideep Sahani’s strength lies in how he tells his story, and his characters are extremely endearing… U have to admit, he’s the only writer who stands out.. all the others are dwarfed by either the stars or the director of the movie.